Cabramatta parents forgive driver after pram crash kills Katherine, 5, and Harry, 14 months
The grief in Cabramatta has a name now. Two names.
Katherine, five, and her little brother Harry, 14 months, were the children in the pram hit by a car at Joseph and Gilbert streets on Wednesday afternoon. Their mother, Sok Ram, had just picked Katherine up from kindergarten. The family should have been heading home. Instead, by 3.15pm, the intersection was a crime scene, strangers were trying to lift a vehicle off a child, and paramedics were fighting for two young lives on the road.
Both children were taken to hospital in a critical condition. Both died a short time later.
On Thursday, their parents stood near the place where it happened and did something almost impossible to watch. They spoke without anger. Their father, Vundy Tha, said he had already forgiven the driver. Ram, injured herself but alive, said she wished the impact had taken her instead.
Police have said the 56-year-old driver was arrested after the crash and taken to hospital for mandatory testing. ABC News reported on Thursday that he had not been charged, and that police sources considered criminal charges unlikely while the investigation continued. That point matters. What happened was catastrophic, but investigators still have to answer the hard questions: how the vehicle came to strike the pram, where everyone was positioned, what the driver saw, and whether any offence can be proved.
The first police account was stark. Officers from Fairfield City Police Area Command arrived to find two children, both aged under five, had been struck while seated in a pram. Their mother, 33, was treated for minor injuries. A crime scene was established, the Crash Investigation Unit was brought in, and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
What followed at the intersection says something about the neighbourhood. Acting Superintendent Timothy Calman said motorists and bystanders stopped, tipped the vehicle onto its side and helped with CPR. It was the kind of frantic, bare-handed rescue work that happens before the official language of statements and reports takes over.
By Thursday afternoon, the public response had moved from shock to mourning. Soft toys, candles, fruit and flowers had appeared at the crash site. An online fundraiser for the family had drawn more than $115,000. Katherine, according to family friends, had been excited after receiving a school award. Harry was still a baby.
This is the sort of case that will sit with police, paramedics and witnesses long after the road has reopened. There may be no villain at the end of it. There may be no charge sheet that explains it. But two children are dead, two parents have gone home to an empty house, and a corner of Cabramatta has become a place people will lower their voices when they pass.
Police are continuing to investigate the crash. Anyone with information or relevant footage should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Sources: NSW Police, ABC News, The Guardian Australia.